Timothy Burke feared returning to 'hell on earth'

He wore his U.S. Army uniform to Easter Mass, where the priest talked of the Resurrection, of how there is life after death.

Faith mattered to Timothy Burke, a 6-foot-1 soldier with a barrel chest who had a tattoo on the left side of his belly: praying hands with a rosary intertwined. Next to his dog tags, he usually wore a Saint Christopher's medal that said, ``Protect Us.''

On that April day, Burke stopped on the way out of Little Flower Catholic Church in Hollywood and asked Father Tom O'Dwyer for a favor.

''Father, I'd like your blessing,'' Burke, 24, said in his baritone. ``I'm heading away in a few days.''

The priest wished the youngest of the three Burke boys well and asked ``that the angels would guide him, and that he would come back safe and whole to his family.''

Timothy Burke came back to his family on Thursday, in a casket draped with the American flag, a soldier whose brief life and violent death reflected the extremes of faith and fear.

He as one of four soldiers in the 7th Squadron, 10th Cavalry, 1st Brigade, 4th Infantry Division from Fort Hood in Texas who were killed on Oct. 4 in Taji, northwest of Baghdad.

Military officials told Burke's family that six soldiers from the 7th Squadron went into a house to search for a weapons cache, said Monica Burke, his sister-in-law. Burke volunteered for the mission. Though he was a gunner, and not supposed to go into the building, he went in anyway, said his fiancée, Karishna Gooden, 19, who lives in Waco, Tex.

Twenty minutes later, a bomb went off, Monica Burke said.

A ROLE MODEL

Timothy Burke was an athlete, who played football and wrestled at South Broward High, a place that had become part of his family. His brother, Matt, teaches physical education there and coaches football. His cousin, Brad Fatout, teaches math. After Burke graduated in 2001, he returned to help coach the school's track team for a couple of years.

On Friday there will be a moment of silence during a South Broward High home football game. The team will dedicate the remainder of its season to him.

''He was a big part of our school community,'' said South Broward football coach Allen Held, who has known him for about two decades. ``He is a role model for these kids.''

Burke wanted to become a paramedic and firefighter. On Oct. 1, 2004, he enlisted in the Army, in the middle of a war. His family tried to talk him out of it, Monica Burke recalled. But he went. First to Fort Knox for basic and advanced training. Then, in January, to Iraq.

Spc. Timothy Burke was a cavalry scout. His job included tracking and reporting enemy movement and gathering information on terrain. He was also the driver and gunner of an HMMWV, a diesel-powered mobile, four-wheel-drive military vehicle.

At first, he helped to train Iraqi soldiers. As the months went on, he reported to his fiancée that the violence was constant, especially at night, Gooden said.

In March, a roadside bomb had exploded 30 feet from his vehicle in Taji. It cracked the windshield and the headlights, and knocked him unconscious.

He recovered, but when he came back to South Florida the next month for an Easter break, he revealed that he had begun to fear the worst.

''I am going back to hell on earth and I don't know if I will be back,'' he told Monica Burke. He didn't want to go back, the family said.

It was an uncharacteristic slip for a soldier who was constantly trying to put his family and friends at ease.

''He was always trying to make me laugh, make me smile,'' said Gooden, his fiancée. ``He was like that with everybody. My whole entire family loved him.''

Burke left his family behind that April, taking off from Fort Lauderdale. He was due to return from his tour in December -- right around the time another sister-in-law, Tameka Burke, would be giving birth. A new nephew in time for Christmas.

`TOTAL WASTE'

Last week, a U.S Army Sgt. delivered some of Timothy Burke's belongings including several military honors, such as a Bronze Star Medal, a Purple Heart, an Army Commendation Medal, an Army Good Conduct Medal and an Iraq Campaign Medal.

Among the personal items was a black metal wristband with the names of four fallen comrades engraved on it. On Thursday, his family was back at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport -- all except for his mother, Sharon Paulette, who couldn't bear to be there. She'd meet the family later at Joseph A. Scarano Funeral Home in Pembroke Pines.

Flight 1847 from Philadelphia, carrying his body, taxied along the runway under the sprinkles of a water cannon salute by Broward Sheriff's Office Fire Rescue. BSO deputies escorted the hearse that waited nearby.

Inside the airport, a crowd gathered. Some stood on chairs in the back to see. Strangers snapped photos from cellphone cameras.

Airport workers on the tarmac, in bright orange vests, stopped to watch. BSO deputies and Fire Rescue workers stood on each side of the casket and carried it into the hearse.

One woman remarked that she had been upset when she had to throw away her makeup and perfume at the security gate. Now, she said, she felt ashamed.

''It kind of puts everything into perspective,'' she said sniffling.

Another woman said: ``This is just wrong . . . total waste.''

''Too young to die,'' said a woman watching from the window inside the terminal.

Monica Burke stood next to her husband, Michael. Tameka Burke, now seven months' pregnant, stood close by, her hand on Michael's shoulder.

Her son, Sean Burke, is due in December. His middle name will be Timothy.

From the Miami Herald

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